Chapter 3

The massacre of Marcus Whitman, M.D., and others in the Walla Walla Valley, Nov., 1847, was followed by war which necessitated the removal in 1848 of all Protestants from the mission field east of the Cascade Mountains. By military proclamation, June, 1848, the country named was declared closed against missionaries. It remained thus eleven years. June, 1859, by military proclamation, the Walla Walla country was declared open for settlement.

In July of that year I, as agent of the A. B. C. F. M., went to Walla Walla to look after their interests. Standing beside the grave of the distinguished patriot and martyr, Dr. Whitman, I purposed to attempt the erection of a monument to his memory in the form of a school of high Christian character. The following Spring, 1860, I commenced work in fulfillment of the plan named. During the next 12 years the execution of that plan was with me all-controlling. In pursuance of said object I recently returned to my native New England.

During my sojourn in Walla Walla from 1860 to 1872 I was favored with opportunities for the measurable prosecution of evangelistic work among the Spokane Indians. In May, 1872, my house at the place formerly occupied by Dr. Whitman was consumed by fire.

My elder son had previously been nominated by the American Missionary Association as Indian agent and confirmed by Government. Previous to his taking charge the Lord's day had been distinguished for the performance of outlandish wickedness. With the new agent there was change of employés. A weekly prayer meeting was appointed and conducted. With a good degree of constancy it has been continued to the present time. A Sunday-school was organized. It is continued with sustained interest.

Soon after the burning of my house in Walla Walla, Agent Eells hastened thither and took his mother to his home. Early the following autumn I joined dear ones at Skokomish. A new departure was named. In pursuance thereof, with the interpreter, a devout Indian, I conducted divine service at the Indian village. It was continued with gratifying results.

In July, 1874, a church composed of whites and Indians was organized. I was chosen pastor. About that time my younger son, Rev. Myron Eells, arrived at Skokomish, with the intention of making a brief stop. To me my early Indian charge, the Spokanes, together with the sparse white settlements in the vicinity, were attractive. I resigned the charge at Skokomish. It was committed to Rev. M. Eells. The seed of the word cast among Spokane Indians did not spring up quickly. It had slow growth, but a rich harvest has been gathered. But I may not enlarge. From my experience and observation the so-called peace policy, when fairly tested, is a success. Connected therewith the ideas and work of the A. M. A. are specially applicable to efforts for the elevation of the Indian. In my judgment the vexed Indian problem may thereby be solved--solved to the mutual profit of our Government and the Indian.

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THE CHINESE.

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LETTER FROM OAKLAND, CAL.

BY REV. GEO. MOOAR, D.D.

There is little more for me to do in noting down my observation of the work of A. M. A. among the Chinese here than to indorse the statements made by the Rev. Dr. McLean in the April number of this magazine. As far as the school work for the Chinese in the English language is concerned, the honor of beginning it belongs, I think, to Mrs. Elizabeth L. Lynde, now deceased, a member of the First Congregational Church in this city at the time. Her heart, which was singularly alert in behalf of the neglected and unfortunate, set her in the year 1867 to teaching two or three Chinese at her house. These were servants in families. Meantime the boy employed in my own house--since favorably known as our chief helper in missionary work, Jee Gam--was spelling out, by the aid of my little girls and their mother, the mysteries of our English language, and little by little learning the great mystery of godliness. Interest deepened in the two or three who were thus drawn together. So, Mrs. Lynde's little class was transferred to our chapel, and soon became a prominent and hopeful department of our Sunday-school. It was a rare pleasure given me to receive, in 1870, the first three Chinamen known as admitted to membership by confession of faith in an English-speaking church in this land.

For several years I had the opportunity of direct participation in this new missionary movement, often taking my place as teacher of the new alphabet and guide to the pronunciation of many unphonetic words. At first there was novelty about it and it was comparatively easy to obtain even the numerous teachers which this work requires. But as the novelty wore off it became more difficult to find and keep volunteers in sufficient numbers. Besides, a demand arose for more than the hour of the Sunday-school service. The eagerness to learn and the increasing acquisition of some called for a more constant and continuous drill. So has come about the system of schools carried on, under the American Missionary Association's appropriations and our California gifts, by the "California Chinese Mission."

I bear glad witness to the large measure of devotion with which this work has been conducted. It is precisely the kind of work to bring out the best qualities of Christian character in those who are responsibly engaged in it. The motives for engaging in it drawn from any other than the purest Christian fountains are few indeed. The men and women, who, within my knowledge, have given their time and heart to it, have long been among my "evidences of Christianity." To the poor the Gospel has been preached by them. Several of those most interested during the early years, as superintendents or teachers, have been laid aside or have "gone home." But there can be no doubt that the Master has said to them, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of my disciples, ye have done it unto me."

For this is pre-eminently the work which makes its appeal to the few. To sustain it pecuniarily as well as otherwise, must pertain to those who give, hoping for nothing in kind again. Those here who would give, perhaps, to help Africans on the Congo, cannot always be appealed to in behalf of this cause. A worthy Christian friend who has charge of a Sunday-school consulted me about a gift he was interesting his scholars to make to some missionary. Whom could I suggest? It was natural, being on this Pacific sea, to suggest a laborer in northern China. It was amusing to see how quickly he dropped my suggestion as if it were something very hot. Why, it would not do at all to mention China in that school. It would kill his darling missionary proposition completely. This illustrates not by any means a universal feeling here, but a feeling which is quite too prevalent. And there are many who would help to teach the Mongolians if they were to be taught _where they belong_, who would be almost offended to be asked to help in their education here. So all the more admirable, in the face of public sentiment here, is it that so many noble workers and givers have been found to sustain this work. For is not this, of all others, the enterprise which "takes the gold right out of the country?"

I overheard an intelligent gentleman, a member of Congress, and born in my native Massachusetts, express the duly considered opinion that the Chinese mind is so organized that it cannot be expected to entertain the Christian ideas. It illustrated the sad fact that it takes a long time for even Americans to entertain and be molded by those ideas. This gentleman might easily have found scores of humble servants and laborers of this "unassimilable" race in his own city who had come as truly in the power of Him, who is the Truth, as any of us. For it is the testimony of all who are acquainted with the facts that as large a proportion of those Chinese who take the Christian name "adorn the doctrine" as do those who take that name from among the Caucasian families. Indeed, the proportion may, perhaps, be larger. For what can ordinarily induce a Chinaman to espouse the Christian standing here unless it be the genuine appreciation of Christian truth and the response of his heart to the love of God as shown in the cross of Christ?

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BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.

MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

Our readers will recall an article issued in this department of the April "Missionary" entitled "A Plan with Reasons." We are happy to report that a good many cheering words in approval of the plan have reached us, and not a few of a practical character. We select from the latter the following:

FROM NEW YORK.

--I have received a delightful letter from our teacher at the Santee Agency, and our Committee are much pleased with her account of her work. I have directed our Treasurer to send to your A. M. A. Treasurer the first quarterly payment on account of the $150 appropriated, and trust it will reach you in due season. Our payments will be made hereafter May 1, Aug. 1 and Nov. 1, as we are dependent on our weekly collections, and hence cannot pay oftener than quarterly.

--Inclosed find $40 for two shares in support of a missionary teacher, from whom we may receive a monthly letter.

FROM MASSACHUSETTS.

--Inclosed please find $20. Our Ladies' Benevolent Society wish to take one share in the expense of a lady missionary teacher, from whom we shall enjoy letters, hoping in this way to call out more interest in the work.

--A recent circular from you was read to our ladies by our pastor's wife, to whom it was sent. We have no separate organization for the Am. Miss. Assoc. but our ladies contribute something to its funds--though probably not enough to take a full share in the support of a teacher. Encouraged by what you say in the circular, we write to ask that we may be included in the list of those to whom monthly letters will be sent, as promised to those who take one or more shares. We are small and few, but the interest is genuine, and we want to increase it. Our contribution goes into the general fund.

FROM MINNESOTA.

--Last week, on a very stormy day, with less than twenty ladies present, the subject of taking shares in the support of a missionary teacher was introduced, and a little over $40 pledged, to be paid before October. I felt very much encouraged, and shall do all I can to increase the amount, though I am too much of a stranger--having been here but a year--to have any idea what we can raise. You promised us letters from our missionary if we took but one of the $20 shares; so we shall hope to receive them. After another month I hope to send you word about a much larger pledge.

--Ours is a country church, laboring under the disadvantage of constant depletion of our younger members; the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis are close by, and our broad frontier also attracts strongly. Last year a determined few, by great exertion, raised almost $100 for division among the Am. Board, A. H. M. S. and A. M. A. The outlook is not encouraging for this year, and, as a regular correspondent might add interest to our small meeting, we voted yesterday to take one share; and should we succeed better than we hope, our rule of division will give you one-third, whatever the amount may be. We need more prayer for warm hearts and the open hand.

FROM OHIO.

--We have been reading "A Plan, with the Reasons," and like it much. We have a class of young girls in our church who ought to be in missionary work. Can you give us a little fuller account of the work? and do you have teachers among the poor white women of the South? Please let us hear soon from you; we want an object to work for. We may not be able to do very much, but would like to do something.

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ALABAMA WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

MISS M. K. LUNT.

The annual meeting of the Alabama Woman's Missionary Association was held in the prayer-room of the Congregational church in Montgomery, Monday, March 31. The devotional exercises were conducted by the President of the Association, Mrs. H. S. De Forest, who gave the opening address, welcoming the members of the local societies, now numbering seven.

The reports of the Secretaries and delegates showed an increase of interest, labor, and funds collected, as well as a constant growth in missionary intelligence.

Nearly all the societies have remembered the foreign work and the Indians, in addition to their own needs and people, and have shown a deep interest in the advancement of Christian education.

Mrs. Ragland, the wife of one of the Talladega theologians, read a paper upon Home Influence, the prominent points of which were filial obedience, the important place the wife, mother, and daughter fill in the home, and the importance of training the daughter in domestic duties.

Mrs. Ash, whose husband was an acceptable pastor in one of the A. M. A. churches, and who not long since was called home, read a paper, giving a comprehensive history of the work of the American Missionary Association in the South, relating incidents connected with the earlier teachings, and showing how the work had broadened, and brought into the ranks the colored people.

Mrs. Andrews, of Talladega, prepared a paper on the "Origin and History of Our Alabama Movement in Woman's Work," read by Miss Partridge, giving a full development of the organization and growth of the society during its seven years' existence, and showing how much greater results are accomplished by organized effort and unity of action, and advising that the relation of this society as an auxiliary to the W. H. M. A. of Boston be severed and become allied to the Woman's Bureau of New York, which has the Southern field under its special care; referring also to the interest, courtesy and sympathy which the Boston society had always shown toward the Alabama branch.

Mrs. O. F. Curtis, of Emerald Grove, Wis., was present, who has two sons in the South as missionaries and one on the foreign field--Rev. W. W. Curtis, of Japan--who addressed the meeting on the condition of the women and girls in that country; what is being done by the missionaries to lead them to Christ; also speaking of the hindrances to the Christian religion.

This interesting meeting could not fail to awaken a deeper interest in the hearts of all present, and we believe that no one left without feeling that she had gained a new impulse to renewed consecration and work for the Master.

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SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK AT TOUGALOO.

MISS JOSEPHINE KELLOGG.

The Sunday-school of this Institution has always--under the present management at least--been considered one of the most important, if not the most important means of grace and spiritual enlightenment. The power of sustained attention and consecutive thought is greatly lacking in all untrained minds; hence the superiority of the hand-to-hand question-and-answer method of the class-room over the sermon as a means of informing the mind and clearing away the rubbish of superstition and the misapprehensions of meaning, derived from the ignorant preachers who have been in many cases the only previous expounders of the word, and resulting also from a very vague and limited understanding of the language of the Bible, the preacher--even the teacher.

It would be impossible for one new to the work to even _grasp at_ the distorted images and superstitious misconceptions connected with religious subjects in the minds of the more ignorant colored people without the free interchange of personal conversation. So for years the Sunday-school has been placed at the head of the Sabbath services here, and given the forenoon, the review by the Superintendent occupying the time of a short sermon, with the lesson for the day, already explained and impressed by the several teachers, for its text. Later in the day class prayer-meetings are held, and here young Christians learn to take up the cross of bearing testimony for Christ, and making audible prayer for themselves and others. Many of the scholars feel these meetings to be very valuable.

At the close of the school year a Sunday-school Convention is held, and it is urged as a duty upon all Christian students who go out to teach that they should organize and conduct Sabbath schools in connection with their day schools.

We have recently received two donations of library books, so that we now have enough to go once around, and we loan them out each Sunday. We also generally have papers to distribute, sent us by kind and careful Sunday-school scholars in the North who make their papers do double duty. If some school changing song-books would send our school a hundred or more well-preserved copies of those they lay aside, it would be a gift highly appreciated.

One of our neighbors is a good Mother in Israel, who has always taken a warm interest in this institution in all its departments and appreciated its uplifting influence upon her people. She belongs to one of the branches of the Methodist Church, and felt that she wanted something done for the improvement and revival of interest in the schools of that denomination in the vicinity. Accordingly, she worked up a S. S. Convention among them last Fall, and invited Mr. Pope and some others of us to go and help to make it profitable. We could not get off until after dinner and might as well not have gone at all. Soon after our entrance a young man introduced a resolution that superintendents and teachers be _compelled_ to be at their schools at the hour set for opening. One of the preachers rose and said that teachers _could not_ be _compelled_, and moved as an amendment that they be _acquired_ to come promptly.

Then ensued along, windy, wordy controversy on "compelling" and "acquiring." Seeing no prospect of a conclusion we withdrew. The good auntie who had invited us followed us out in deep humiliation. I said, we are sorry to go without contributing something to the interest of the meeting, but this is such a waste of time, there is no coming to the point. "That's jus' so, dear," she said, "but that their ign'rance. Ign'rance _does_ waste time, honey. _Ign'rance can't come to a pint._" That last sentence struck me as a piece of epigrammatic wisdom.

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CHILDREN'S PAGE

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WONG NING'S IDEAS

AS EXPRESSED BY HIMSELF.

[Wong Ning is no imaginary character. He is a real flesh-and-blood Chinese boy, living in San Francisco, and much interested in the new and many sided life going on about him. So we are glad to give you, in his own words, a few of his observations on American life and manners.]

My name is Wong Ning. I born on home China, come to this country when thirteen years old, and been here now seven year.

Little boy have very hard time on home China. Have to get up and go to school at six o'clock--very early that--come home, get breakfast at eight o'clock, and lunch at twelve o'clock; then stay till six o'clock in the day. I no think American boy like that!

Little girl no go to school _at all_! Very funny, that! Have one big house, on home China, where all the girls go every day; learn to sew, make the pretty things, the flowers, the birds, everything! by the needle. Little girl no speak to the boy--no! never! on home China.

On home China every one like the mother very much; give everything to she. If a China boy no like the mother, no work hard for she, no send she everything--Oh! horrible! _very bad!_ All the sons marry, bring home the wife to wait on she. Not like the wife so much as the mother, on home China.

The woman--the wife, the mother, the little girl--all work in the house--sew, cook, make the cloth, everything! When they make the dinner or the lunch, set the table very nice, put on everything; then run behind the curtain (no have any door on home China), and then the man--the father, the son, the little boy--all come in, sit down, eat the dinner; eat him all up. Pretty soon, by and by, the woman--the mother, the wife, the little girl--come quiet, lift up the curtain. If he all gone, can come eat; if no, can not come. _Yes! Sure!_

I go to school at night, learn to read and write; I think English very hard. I been work for the Jew family, the Irish family, and the Spanish family. I think my English get too much funny--so many kinds of language. Now I work for the American family; like it more better.

I been here so long, and go to school so much, that I understand the English more better than China. _Very funny that!_ When my cousin, at the wash-house, send me the letter to come take dinner with he, he have to write it in English, and the lady I work for, she laugh very much.

I get one letter this morning. (My American name Charley). Here the letter:

"Mr. Chily, you Please come to Kum Lee this evening to take dinder, because Lee chong go to home China this week. Ah Do and Ah Sing all come in to if soon as you can good by WONG VOO."

I know plenty stories about on home China. You ever hear about Kong foo-too?--American call him Confucius--he very great man.

Maybe you like, I tell you one story. He live about two, three thousand year ago, _yes!_ _sure!_ He travel every city, teach Chinaman--that very good.

One city he no came--that Canton--one very big place inside three big walls. Kong-foo-too, or Confucius, he come to Canton, and try to come in the gate--very big gate.

One little boy there seven years old. I think that little boy too smart. He making play of a little city, and building three little walls around it, all the same like Canton. He took up too much room, and talk too smart, so that Confucius cannot get in.

He watch him a little while, then he say, "I guess Canton all right; this boy can teach Canton. I go some other place." _That very bad!_ Next year that boy died--_very strange that_! So Canton never get any teaching, not from boy, not from Kong-foo-too. I think not very good for little boy to be too smart.--_St. Nicholas._

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RECEIPTS FOR APRIL, 1884.

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MAINE, $257.77.

Augusta. "J. S." (5 of which _for Indian Work, Hampton N. & A. Inst._) to const. REV. ARTHUR F. SKEELE L.M. $30.00 Belfast. Miss A. L. McDowell, _for Selma, Ala._ 1.00 Bluehill. Cong. Ch. 5.00 Brewer. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00 Camden. R. Bowers, 20; Abner Howe and wife, 3; Jonas Howe, 50c.; Mrs. Myra A. Mansfield, 3.50; E. D. Mansfield, 3 30.00 Gorham. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 65.85 Gorham. Sab. Sch., by J. S. Hinckley, _for Student Aid, Selma, Ala._ 26.42 Limington. "A. B." 2.00 Lyman. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.50 Machias. Center St. Cong. Ch. 5.00 Portland. Fourth Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.00 Saint Albans. Rev Wm. S. Sewall 3.00 Scarborough. "A friend in Cong. Ch." 50.00 South Berwick. Mrs. J. H. Hodgden's S. S. Class, _for Student Aid, Talladega C._ 10.00 South Berwick, Ladies of Cong. Ch., Bbl. of C., _for Wilmington, N. C._ Woodfords. ---- 1.00 Yarmouthville. Rev. A. Loring 1.00

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $237.16.